Final Report - Asian Development Bank

i) Tourism
5. One of the strongest sectors in the Shaanxi economy is tourism, which is benefiting from the
strong growth in the Chinese tourism industry. The tourism industry is a major driver of the Shaanxi
economy. China is now the largest tourist destination in Asia, and is currently ranked fourth in the world
in terms of international tourist arrivals and sixth in terms of international tourism receipts. From 2000 to
2006, international visitors to China rose by 7% per annum from 83.4 million to 124 million, providing a
growth rate of nearly 7% per annum – despite a dip of 6.4% in 2003 because of the SARS epidemic.
Foreign exchange earnings over the same period rose by 13% per year from $16.2 billion to $33.9 billion.
From 2000 to 2006, the number of domestic tourists experienced even higher growth of 11% per annum
from 744 million to 1.39 billion, while the revenues generated by domestic tourists increased from
CNY317.6 billion to CNY623 billion, which provides an annual average growth rate of nearly 12% per
year. 3
6. The Shaanxi Tourism Bureau reports 1.06 million international visitors in 2006, nearly 70
million domestic tourists (which accounts for 5% of the national total) 4 , and tourism receipts from all
sources of $5.4 billion or about CNY42 billion. This amounts to about 10% of Shaanxi’s GDP in 2006.
Currently international tourists spend $480 over 2.7 days, while domestic tourists spend $70 over a period
of 2.9 days.
7. The tourism industry’s enterprise structure is divided between hotels/accommodation facilities,
travel and tour agencies, and tourism attractions and tourist sites. The province’s tourism base and
supporting infrastructure are well developed. There are currently about 300 starred hotels in SP divided
as follows: five star – 4 hotels, four stars – 24 hotels, three stars – 135, two stars or below – 137 hotels.
The total number of beds in star rated hotels is 60,000. When the non-starred hotels are added, the
province has well over 330,000 beds. Four and five star hotels are generally owned by the state and/or
operated through foreign joint ventures. While some are under private ownership, most of the two and
three star hotels are also owned by the state but their management is contracted out to the private sector –
generally to domestic enterprises.
8. The product structure of the SP tourism industry is dominated by historical and cultural products
and ancient buildings and sites from a relatively few centuries in the province’s long history – mainly the
Qin and Han dynasties. The Shaanxi Province Tourism Bureau plans to diversify the tourism product
through: (i) placing greater emphasis on later historical periods; (ii) marketing Xi’an as an important
international cosmopolitan city within the western region of China; and (iii) expanding eco-tourism and
other resource-based tourism. This strategy recognizes ands hopes to capitalize on the strong growth now
taking place in the international and national nature based tourism market. This is reputed to be the
fastest growing sector of the tourist industry. While tourism has been growing year on year at around 4%,
eco-tourism/nature-based tourism is growing at three times faster than tourism as a whole 5 (around 12%).
The Shaanxi Tourism Bureau is currently preparing a strategy to support eco-tourism and other resourcebased
and cultural tourism in the Qinling Mountains. The Bureau is seeking funding to conduct research
3 See for example: World Tourism Organization, “Tourism Highlights: 2006 Edition “, 2006.
4 The national tourism data classifies domestic tourists as travelers who stay away from home for more than six
hours. The provincial tourism data noted below on average length of stay would suggest that most domestic
tourists who are resident in SP or from other provinces stay overnight. Based on this classification, the country’s
domestic tourists increased from 750 million to 1.2 billion from 2000 to 2005, providing a growth rate of about 10%
per year over the first half of the current decade. The number of foreign tourists entering China (which as noted
above excludes visitors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) nearly doubled over the same period to reach 20
million foreign visitors in 2005. Shaanxi’s share of China’s foreign (other country) visitors is a little less than 4%.
Therefore, Shaanxi’s shares of both foreign and domestic tourists is well over the province’s contributions to the
country’s population and GDP, pointing out the importance of tourism to Shaanxi and the high reputation enjoyed
by the province’s tourism sector in both national and international markets.
5 The Ecotourism Society (2005) Ecotourism Factsheet Vermont